The Talent 2012 - Choreographers

Tina is one of Toronto's most popular dance experts with a specialty in Latin dance. Her accomplishments include training lead actor Jake Simons for his role as “Johnny Castle” in North America’s fastest selling premier stage production of Dirty Dancing. You can also watch her this 2008 season on E! Network’s reality show “Instant Beauty Pageant” as choreographer.  Other credits include instructing Toronto Maple Leaf hockey player Wade Belack on “Wade a Minute” (Leafs TV and Sportsnet), appearing as a guest judge on American reality TV“6 Degrees of X with Carmen Electra, choreographer on Wedding SOS”and has been a source for Toronto's leading newspapers like Sunday Sun, National Post, the Metro and Toronto Star.

Tina is the co-founder and Artistic Director of City Dance Corps, one of Toronto's leading dance schools.  She has been producing Talent Defined since 2005 as a way to promote dance in the community, to bridge the gap between various dance genres and to provide performance opportunities for emerging dance companies and choreographers.  She has also produced The Winter Salsa Carnival Saturday night gala event 'Fusion' with organizer Mark Anthony, and has produced City Dance Corps faculty show IMPULSE.

Shannon Roberts graduated from Ryerson University with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Performance Dance under the direction of Nadia Potts in 2009.  She has had the pleasure of working with Holly Small in Three Rags (2008), Louis Laberge-cote in Axis Mundi (2009), as well as Kenny Pearl and David Earle in the remount of Sacra Conversazione (2009). Her training includes ballet, jazz, modern, hip hop, figure skating and flying trapeze. Shannon is an adamant traveler and has been all over the world studying culture and performance. She lived in China for six months where she developed a dance and theatre program that incorporated learning English. She has been in several festivals and most recently performed in Vienna under the direction of Keith Hennessy at the Impulstanz Festival. This past summer She had the honour of participating in the Society for Dance History Scholars Conference at York University under the direction of and in collaboration with Susan Lee, Don Sinclair and Andra McCartney. She just performed "Saudades do Brasil" with Newton Moraes Dance Theatre at the PULSE Youth Dance Conference at York University. Shannon recently graduated from York University with her Master of Fine Arts degree in contemporary dance with a focus in dance choreography.

Apolonia’s dance training and passion for different dance styles has allowed her to be part of several stage and commercial projects. She was recently featured in commercials for SO You Think You can Dance Canada, Nike and Virgin Mobile. She has also worked on stage and in music videos along artists such as Shawn Desman, Massari, Eva Avila, Cory Lee, Denosh, Sarah Melody and Cali. Apolonia has performed, battled, and competed in Canada and in cities such as Los Angeles, Paris and Mexico City.

“We vibe, learn, and feed of each other’s energy. These are the best individuals I have been given the chance to direct, choreograph and learn from”

JP's dance journey started in 2003 when he attended University of Toronto and joined the UTDC and UTDSC (University of Toronto Dance Club and University of Toronto Dance Sport Club) where he was exposed to different forms of dance including salsa and ballroom (both international and latin).  He then continued taking classes at the Pollock Dance Studio and further extended his ballroom dance training.  In 2005, salsa dancing marked a turning point in JP's life when he started teaching and performing at UofT Dance Club.  He then continued his training and joined several performance teams and professional groups in Toronto including Rumbon, Mambo Tribe, Steps Dance, United Salseros, Los Salsomanos, and Ifreestyle.  JP was also part of the semi-pro team of City Dance Corps in 2010 where he learned other forms of dance including hip-hop, house, hustle, afro-cuban, tango, and jazz.  JP has been performing locally and internationally and has attended several Salsa Conventions in the world including Puerto Rico, New York, San Francisco, Montreal, Chicago, and Bermuda.  He continues to teach students at University of Toronto and shares his passion, enthusiasm, and encourage their confidence on stage and on the dance floor.

Rachel has been dancing her whole life. Her passion to dance started at the tender age of 7 where she trained in Ballet, Royal Academy of Dance, with the London School of Dance. She expanded her repertoire with competitive tap and jazz in later years. At 12 years old she joined the Hawaiian Pacific Magic, a Polynesian dance school and a professional performance company with which she performed and toured. In the same year she began performing in several musical theatre productions and continued on doing so. Some of her musical theatre training and experience was at the University of Toronto where she was involved in productions at the famous Hart House Theatre.  Always eager to further expand her knowledge of other dance forms, Rachel has also trained in traditional and latin dance with the Dance Club Blue Silver.

She has since trained in Los Angeles and New York in many styles including Hip-Hop and has performed in movies, television, music videos.  She has also worked as a choreographer for many projects. It was in Los Angeles that Rachel was selected and represented by a top talent agency within the dance industry. The love for the stage and her triple threat talents in singing, acting and dance led Rachel to work as the lead singer of a Pussycat Doll Tribute band.

Her credits include: Honey (Universal), CityLine , CosmoGirl (CosmoTV), Much On Demand, That Radio, SiTv, LaTV, YTV, The Toronto Show.  She has worked for several artists including:  T-Pain, Deftones and Boys Like Girls.  Rachel has also recently been casted as a dancer in several Bollywood films shot in Toronto.

A Toronto native, Natasha Powell is not only recognized as an extremely versatile and passionate artist, but more importantly, a soulful mover.  Dance only started out as a summer activity that her mother enrolled her in, not knowing that Natasha was about to meet the love of her life at the age of 9 years old.  Her training started in ballet, jazz, and tap, then branched out to street dance forms hip hop, house, waacking, and funk styles.  Her extensive dance vocabulary stems from training across North America with some of the best in these forms.  As a performer, select credits TV and film credits include Nickelodeon’s “Spectacular!”, HBO Series “The L Word”, and “Centre Stage 2”.

In 2008, Powell became co-Artistic Director and Choreographer of Toronto dance company Catalyst; a collective that is highly-respected for their creative, dynamic, and versatile story-telling methods, through the use of their highly diverse vocabulary in movement.  They have performed and hosted dance workshops across the Greater Toronto Area.  They are most known for their work in the Toronto Fringe Festival titled “The 5th Element” which received raving accolades from NOW Magazine, and other theatre reviewers, and was nominated as BEST DANCE PRODUCTION in  the 2011 Broadway World Toronto Awards.

In 2011, she founded Soul Committed Productions, an organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the vital core element in urban dance: soul.  Through workshops, programming, and choreography projects, her aim is to foster, inspire, educate and build relationships between the artists and the people that support them.